, 1887-06-09
RUSSIAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
A Project on Foot-The Hereditary no
bility-A Curious Contrast.

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A Project on Foot-The Hereditary No
bility-A Curious Contrast.
There is a project on foot in govern
mental circles in Russia for the reor-
ganization of local administration, the
central principle of which has been
rumored to be to base it on the principle of
rendering the members of the class of
hereditary landed nobility alone eligible
for election to the provincial assemblies.
The facts disclosed in an essay on the
subjects by Mr.. Stcheglovitow go to dis
prove the practicability of this plan,
which could only be advisable, or even
possible, if there existed a class of noble
landed proprietors soundly constituted
and more or less pr~oportionally distrib-
uted throughout the empire. This is not
So In the north and extreme east of
Russia there may be said to be no such
class at all. The large province of Arch
angel contains but four individuals who
may be 30 considered.
OF the 10000 titled land owners in
the whole country nearly one-ha!f are
concentrated in nine governments of
Little Russia, White Russia and Lithu-
ania, and even there the distribution
Is very unequal; Poltava registers 10, 157,
while Kharkov contains only 3,412. In
the Baltic provinces the ~aristocratic ele-
mant is insignificant. In the Ukraine
more than half the SO called nobility
might be more properly designated yeo-
men, their freeholds being less thar $50
acres. In the south and southeast the
great territorial magnates predominant,
from 40 to so per cent. of the state
consisting of more than 12, 900 acres, but
even here they are being pushed from
their pride of pl~ce and social supremacy
by new men from the ranks of COM
merce.
The numbers of the hereditary nobility
are sensibly on the decline. In twelve
years they have fallen off 10 per cent.
The diminution of their revenues dates
further back and is in q greater ratio.
The absentee habits of the great nobility
and the want of instruction of the smaller,
who do not reside upon their lands, rem
der them unfit to DO the exclusive occu-
piers of the new government posts, in the
opinion of the writer above mentioned.
He thinks that there should be both a
land property qualification and an educa-
tonal test required in the case of overy
aspirant to office. From another source
it would appear hat the aristocratic mem
bers of the existing zemstvos are in a
large majority, even in the towns, and
that they require no special privileges to
be conferred upon them by law to enable
them to maintain their a~scendency as
local leaders.
But a very curious contrast is presented
by the conduct of these gentlemen in the as
semblies of the mobiles and in the zemstvos,
for many of them are members of both.
In the former they seldom bring for
ward questions of general interest, al
though they have a right to do SO, and
are mainly engaged in asserting their
class p~rerogatives, while in the latter
they put themselves at the head OF the
popular and progressive movement, which
is alien, if anything, to their class inter
ests. In this way they show themselves
at the same timo egotistic and generous,
defenders of their personal interests to
the detriment of general interests and
champions of the latter to the detriment
of their own.-London Times.